Disembodiment/ re-embodiment:
-Danesi states that in result of the use of computers and technology has led to what we know as disembodiment, which surrounds the ideology of Cartesian Dualism
-Cartesian Dualism: constant exposure to virtual realities in cyberspace are leading to a gradual entrenchment of a bizarre modern form of Cartesian Dualism in which body and mind are viewed as separate entities
-This is known as the disembodiment process
-It is the ideology of the creation of a virtual world in which the mind is separated from the body oEX. Video game addiction: call of duty oEX. Cyberjunkies: people addicted to being online
-In result to this the user is interacting with the representation and not reality
-Virtual reality has become more widespread and it further expands disembodiment
-Danesi states that the convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world’s signifying orders by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation, physical place, textuality and even reality
-Re-embodiment:
-As digital technologies continues to advance, technology will bring the regeneration of the body and mind
-is a process defined by Marshall McLuhan (1964) also known as ‘re-tribalization’, which refers to the ideology that with more use of computers and global communication more people will go back towards using traditional forms of communication.
-Re-tribalization refers to humans that live in a virtual society will desire to live as a tribal society
-The manifestation processes are everywhere. Even though people today see themselves as interconnected to world events (through TV and Internet) they still have a strong desire to live in the free world. So rather than having resolved conflicts among people by allowing them into contact, digital technology has brought out the “tribal animal” within us even more
-Re-tribalization involves re-embodiment, since it engages people in face to face contact.
Convergence:
-advances in digital technology and in telecommunication networks have led to a convergence of all media into one overall mediated system of communications
-This has led to the emergence of new lifestyles and careers to the creation of new institutions and to radical paradigm shifts in all domains of social organizations
-Is the manifestation of digitization of all media technologies and the integrations of media into computer networks
-Ex. Telephone: iphone 3g (integrates phone, music, internet etc.)
-Ex. Print media: newspapers (printed and online versions)
-Ex. Film: additions of special effects and digital animation (Toy Story)
-Media convergence is the result of the development of computer technology.
-The convergence of the computer with all other media technologies is the defining characteristic of mass communications today.
Advertising Textuality:
-the construction of advertisements and commercials on the basis of the specific signification systems built intentionally into products.
-use of jingles which typically brings out some aspect of the product in a memorable way ,
-creation of fictious characters so as to assign a visual portraiture to the product, Ex Ronald McDonald
-there is a dynamic interplay between advertising, pop culture, general social tendencies, whereby one influences the another through a constant synergy.
-2 main techniques used by advertisers: oPositioning: placing or targeting a product for the right people (target market) oImage Creation: creating an image for a product means shaping/creating a personality/characteristics for the product with which someone can relate to (i.e. name, logo, price, overall presentation of a product) à ads often rely on mythologization in which brand names, logos, packaging, are related with some mythic meaning. Example: quest for youth, beauty. Gender typing:
-The pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular culture and that is largely determined by a child's
-As children get older they learn about themselves, who they are and how they are supposed to act and what is appropriate for the gender specific behaviour
-Ex. Disney: there are gender representation in Disney animated classics that are based on popular fairytales
-They follow gender specific narratives that gender type characters in their films oEx. Heroes (Hercules) seen as strong, masculine, tall, handsome, brave §All ways wins, and gets the girl oEx. Snow White: female roles are often portrayed as domestic and beautiful. They have long legs, bright eyes long eyelashes
-Disney uses these gender typing implications to shape gender stereotypes which are often naturalized into society
Machinism:
-Also known as “Intelligent Machines” or the Science of “Artificial Intelligence”
-Psychologist P.N Johnson- Laird identified three types of machines in his book Mental Models oCartesian Machines: Do not use symbols, lack of awareness of themselves oCraikian Machines: constructs models of reality but lack self awareness oSelf Reflective Machines: construct models of reality and are aware of their ability to construct such models
-As now only humans are capable of the type 3 machine
-Media and AI joined forces where the mind=machine
-But the Machine is not equal to the mind as it is created by mind, it is a metaphor to understand the technical level
-Machinism is a product of a metaphoric thinking
-Metaphor is a cognitive strategy for understanding the products of that ingenuity Ritualization of Subordination:
-is one of Erving Goffman’s Analytic Categories
-is a classic stereotype used in advertising which arranges objects and people in specific ways to portray social hierarchies.
-Ex. Man is more dominant than women , has been shown as a central figure, elevation and high physical place symbolizing high social place ( court rooms)
-Beds and floors provide places in social situations where person will be lower than anyone sitting on a chair or standing. Lying on the floor or a sofa perpetuate female stereotype as less clean or less pure.
-These create stereotypes which are often naturalized in to society
-Scenes in ads where men tend to be located higher than women, this arrangemnts is supported by the understanding in our society that courtesy obliges men to favor women with first claim on whatever is available by way of a seat. Alpha/Beta:
-the brain has two distinct sides, the left brain and the right brain – each responsible for different things
-the Right side: spatial and is not critical (ALPHA) oAlpha brain waves escape reality oBrain is idle/Rest mode oNot actively processed on incoming messages or motion/Were just absorbing the information oAdd images and visuals, viewed as an escape from reality oPsychologist Thomas Mulholland found that after just 30 seconds of watching TV the brain starts to produce Alpha waves, which indicates slow rate of activity oHis research applies that watching TV is neurologically analogues to staring at a blank wall oAssociated with unfocused overly receptive state of consiousness
-the Left side: reading (BETA) oActive awareness, alert, tuned, makes you respond quickly oNeurons fire up in great numbers and high performances oWe experience TV news differently from the newspaper oWe are actively reading and criticiz
Horizontal Rule
ing oMedia makes the difference and medium is the message oActually changes interpersonal dynamics oMessage is not the new stories but the creation of crime, weather changes our perception just like Picaso on canvas (Violent World or Fear) Virtual Signifieds:
With advances in satellite communications, TV has now allowed viewers to see themselves as participants in wars and conflicts in other parts of the war as they happened
The three psychological effects are:
-1) Mythologizing Effect: effect that makes people believe in mythic figures that are seen as “larger” than life. oActors are perceived to have this holy quality by virtue of the fact that they are seen as suspended inside the mythical electronic space created by television. oThe mythologizing effects leads to people showing great enthusiasm and excitement when meeting TV actors
-2) History Fabrication Effect: ideology that TV fabricates history by inducing the minds of society o
-Participants see themselves in wars and conflicts which make them think they are active viewers.
-They are in fact passive viewers.
-TV creates the illusion that there is connectivity among what would otherwise be perceived as fragmented random events. In correlating random events together, TV becomes a social text functioning as a kind of meta-text through which people gain a large portion of information, intellectual simulation and distraction.
-TV is Ubiquitous- everywhere
-Baudrillard says unlike reading books which requires a critical reflection on the signified being conveyed, TV has led to a generalized passiveness and unreflectiveness in how people receive and understand messages.
-Intellectual lethargy ( exhaustion)
-Nixon against Kennedy- people listening on the radio thought Nixon had won the debate but television viewers picked Kennedy. This according to baudrillard showed the power of the visual image over any other type of signifier in media events.
-The three effects are at a lesser degree on other types of Medias since TV reaches more people.
-Actors are perceived as mythic figures who are seen as suspended in real time and space in a mythic world on their own. Actors are perceived to have this holy quality by virtue of the fact that they are seen as suspended inside the mythical electronic space created by television. The mythologizing effects leads to people showing great enthusiasm and excitement when meeting TV actors.
-TV has become the maker of history and its documenter at the same time. For e.g. a riot that gets airtime becomes an important event, one that does not is ignored. People make up their minds about the guilt or innocence of others by watching news and interview programmes. What seems to be a random event with no apparent meaning to us becomes a historical reality. An e.g. would be Diana’s death which was broadcasted all over the world. Even though some people didn’t know her they would still show emotions of sadness when viewing it. An e.g. the Vietnam War as portrayed by the American media gave the public a sense of military and social victory. This shows how media is sanitized that is the perspective is chosen for us. Anderson says media take the raw material of experience and fashion it into stories, they retell the stories to us and we call them reality’
-The cognitive compression effect holds for theory that since television is sanitized for us, the amount of thinking required to reflect on a news program for example is very less. As Danesi states the various stories have been edited and stylized beforehand for effortless mass consumption. Since viewers have less time to reflect on it, this leads to a passive and cognitively effortless way of reading the TV text. The remote control has intensified the cognitive compression effect as the viewer is able to switch channels without reflection when he is bored with the program being aired.
2) Fiske defines television as a bearer/ provoker of meanings and pleasures, and of culture as the generation and circulation of this variety of meanings and pleasures within society
-TV as a cultural agent, mainly a provoker and circulator of meanings.
-it can be seen as a social text that is an overarching representamen that guides and informs the wider society on issues of current concern
-TV carries and recycles trends and myths which are already pre-existent to society and are often “naturalized” in society.
-Fiske uses a 3 level model to analyze television and the meanings in which programs attach to them.
-Level one: Technical Code - Reality, which analyzes appearance, dress codes, make up, speech etc.
-Level two: Social Code - Representation, which analyzes camera angles, lighting, editing, music and sounds used in programs to signify underlying codes.
-Ex. Close ups for close personal relationships – makes viewer feel connected
-Level three: Ideology- which organizes all of the above into coherence and social acceptability oSuch as patriarchy, individualism, race, materialism etc.
- For example the show Friends oCharacters may seem as separate individuals but by analyzing each of them carefully one can understand that they hold distinct codes of ideology that are attached to each character. Ex. Joey- jock, Phebe- dumb blonde
-TV shows carry underlying social codes in which viewers are passive when analyzing
-These codes are recycled so frequently that viewers accept these codes as the social norms, which is why these corporate standards to what is seen as “norm” have been so easily “naturalized” in society
In the late 1980s when viewing movies at home became an option with video cassettes and with the advent of cable, the debate arose that perhaps the movie cinema experience was dead. This proved to be false. Explain why and explain why movies are so powerful with specific reference to Metz.
3) The late 1980 saw a revolution in the way people perceived movies, with major releases being made available for home video
This development seemed to threaten the long term survival of movie theatres and created a climate of uneasiness in movie studios throughout the world, when TV began to challenge the hegemony of motion pictures.
As a result, film companies started increasingly favoring large spectacle movies with special effects which could not be viewed at home.
Going to cinema is still perceived as communal event, something that is to be shared with others. Being at a movie theatre is a social act – being on a date, social experience different atmosphere
• Polysemy
• Composite signifier- Dialogue, camera shot, dark room, large screen made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers.
• Active role of the viewer in creating meaning
• We interpret the codes
• Yet, we’re subject to the ideology and we’re just consumers
So despite the challenge from video cassettes and DVD, the traditional movie viewing is popular as ever.
It is more accurate to say that the cinematic text expands the categories of language by blending dialogues, music, scenery, and action in a cohesive way. For this reason, it can be characterized as a composite sign made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers. This is why according to Metz (1974), they can be viewed as having the same structural features of language. Its composite nature is what makes cinematic representation powerful.
4)
-Constant exposure to virtual realities in cyberspace are leading to a gradual entrenchment of a bizarre modern form of Cartesian dualism in which the body and the mind are viewed as separate entities.
-Constant exposure leads to something really bizarre. computers allow users to move and react in a computer simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
-Constant engagement in such environments is conditioning people more and more to perceive the body as separate from the mind.
-Danesi argues that the body and the mind are separate entities but they work together as one. Virtual devices are contributing to this process of cartesian dualism, that transmits the sights, sounds, and sensations of the simulated world to the user.
-In effect, the human subject with a world totally made- up, a kind of representational space where the user is interacting with representation itself.
-Virtual reality has become more widespread and it further expands disembodiment
-Danesi states that the convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world’s signifying orders by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation, physical place, textuality and even reality.
EX. Video game addiction: call of duty
EX. Cyberjunkies: people addicted to being online
What does Marshall McLuhan mean when he states “the medium is the message?”
·Picasso’s analytic cubism took the art and broke it apart with different angular positions, rearranged the elements, resemble and put together. ·Mc luhan argues that cubism is the most radical attempt to stamp out ambiguity andto enforce one reading of the picture- that of a man-made construction. ·For cubism substitutes all facet of an object simultaneously for the point of view or facet of perspective illusion. Cubism sets up an interplay of plans and contradictions or dramatic conflict of patterns, lights, textures, that ‘drives home the message’ by involvement. ·Cubism-multiple perspectives by giving the inside and outside, the top-bottom, back-front and the rest, by forcing you to be aware of the total awareness. Medium is the message. ·Cubism is not the image or art produced but goes further beyond this. The message, it seemed, was the content as people used to ask what a painting was about. But they never thought to ask about what a melody or a house was about. ·Changes interpersonal dynamics, perceptions, art and power of viewing. Medium is the message. Actual medium is changing our mind ·In changing our perception it also goes a step beyond and makes us look above and beyond the obvious to see the non-obvious changes. ·Medium becomes the heart of the message beyond the distraction factory- we are always looking for entertainment relentlessly by endless amount of people ·Acura creates a culturally ambiguous in the sense that it embeds both Japanese and Italian. It is imitative of both the structure of some Japanese words such as tempura and of most Italian words which end typically in a vowel. This generates a system of connotations that are based on two sets of perceptions.- Japanese technology and Italian as a language of love poetry and song.MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE.
·White supremacy to protect racial purity.
•Fiske argues that certain codes work more explicitly than others.
•Their ideological work is to naturalize the correlation of low class non-Americans with the less attractive, less moral and therefore more villainous.
•No other social institution engaged in the construction and distribution of public discourse has the pervasiveness and volume of consumption as the mass media
•1915 “blockbuster
•It has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the Ku Klux Klan
•Director, D.W. Griffith said the film was about war and reconstruction and not race.
•Opening scene sets film up around issues of racism
•Signifiers in the film use several different elements to convey meanings about race that are clearly to the accuser’s benefit and at the victim’s expense, that is, that African Americans themselves are to blame not only for slavery, but for the problem that slavery caused white people and this is something that is shown continuously in the film.
•Groffith invented the close-up, with the camera showing the actor’s emotions.
•The films racist ideology with white characters- colonial type’s civilized and black characters as uncivilised, bewildered and passive.
•All this would not have happened if they would not have shown that they are inferior to be put into slavery. And hence has been naturalized destructive chaos by former slaves.
PART 1:
Disembodiment/ re-embodiment:
- Danesi states that in result of the use of computers and technology has led to what we know as disembodiment, which surrounds the ideology of Cartesian Dualism
- Cartesian Dualism: constant exposure to virtual realities in cyberspace are leading to a gradual entrenchment of a bizarre modern form of Cartesian Dualism in which body and mind are viewed as separate entities
- This is known as the disembodiment process
- It is the ideology of the creation of a virtual world in which the mind is separated from the body
o EX. Video game addiction: call of duty
o EX. Cyberjunkies: people addicted to being online
- In result to this the user is interacting with the representation and not reality
- Virtual reality has become more widespread and it further expands disembodiment
- Danesi states that the convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world’s signifying orders by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation, physical place, textuality and even reality
- Re-embodiment:
- As digital technologies continues to advance, technology will bring the regeneration of the body and mind
- is a process defined by Marshall McLuhan (1964) also known as ‘re-tribalization’, which refers to the ideology that with more use of computers and global communication more people will go back towards using traditional forms of communication.
- Re-tribalization refers to humans that live in a virtual society will desire to live as a tribal society
- The manifestation processes are everywhere. Even though people today see themselves as interconnected to world events (through TV and Internet) they still have a strong desire to live in the free world. So rather than having resolved conflicts among people by allowing them into contact, digital technology has brought out the “tribal animal” within us even more
- Re-tribalization involves re-embodiment, since it engages people in face to face contact.
Convergence:
- advances in digital technology and in telecommunication networks have led to a convergence of all media into one overall mediated system of communications
- This has led to the emergence of new lifestyles and careers to the creation of new institutions and to radical paradigm shifts in all domains of social organizations
- Is the manifestation of digitization of all media technologies and the integrations of media into computer networks
- Ex. Telephone: iphone 3g (integrates phone, music, internet etc.)
- Ex. Print media: newspapers (printed and online versions)
- Ex. Film: additions of special effects and digital animation (Toy Story)
- Media convergence is the result of the development of computer technology.
- The convergence of the computer with all other media technologies is the defining characteristic of mass communications today.
Advertising Textuality:
- the construction of advertisements and commercials on the basis of the specific signification systems built intentionally into products.
- use of jingles which typically brings out some aspect of the product in a memorable way ,
- creation of fictious characters so as to assign a visual portraiture to the product, Ex Ronald McDonald
- there is a dynamic interplay between advertising, pop culture, general social tendencies, whereby one influences the another through a constant synergy.
- 2 main techniques used by advertisers:
o Positioning: placing or targeting a product for the right people (target market)
o Image Creation: creating an image for a product means shaping/creating a personality/characteristics for the product with which someone can relate to (i.e. name, logo, price, overall presentation of a product)
à ads often rely on mythologization in which brand names, logos, packaging, are related with some mythic meaning. Example: quest for youth, beauty.
Gender typing:
- The pattern of masculine or feminine behavior of an individual that is defined by a particular culture and that is largely determined by a child's
- As children get older they learn about themselves, who they are and how they are supposed to act and what is appropriate for the gender specific behaviour
- Ex. Disney: there are gender representation in Disney animated classics that are based on popular fairytales
- They follow gender specific narratives that gender type characters in their films
o Ex. Heroes (Hercules) seen as strong, masculine, tall, handsome, brave
§ All ways wins, and gets the girl
o Ex. Snow White: female roles are often portrayed as domestic and beautiful. They have long legs, bright eyes long eyelashes
- Disney uses these gender typing implications to shape gender stereotypes which are often naturalized into society
Machinism:
- Also known as “Intelligent Machines” or the Science of “Artificial Intelligence”
- Psychologist P.N Johnson- Laird identified three types of machines in his book Mental Models
o Cartesian Machines: Do not use symbols, lack of awareness of themselves
o Craikian Machines: constructs models of reality but lack self awareness
o Self Reflective Machines: construct models of reality and are aware of their ability to construct such models
- As now only humans are capable of the type 3 machine
- Media and AI joined forces where the mind=machine
- But the Machine is not equal to the mind as it is created by mind, it is a metaphor to understand the technical level
- Machinism is a product of a metaphoric thinking
- Metaphor is a cognitive strategy for understanding the products of that ingenuity
Ritualization of Subordination:
- is one of Erving Goffman’s Analytic Categories
- is a classic stereotype used in advertising which arranges objects and people in specific ways to portray social hierarchies.
- Ex. Man is more dominant than women , has been shown as a central figure, elevation and high physical place symbolizing high social place ( court rooms)
- Beds and floors provide places in social situations where person will be lower than anyone sitting on a chair or standing. Lying on the floor or a sofa perpetuate female stereotype as less clean or less pure.
- These create stereotypes which are often naturalized in to society
- Scenes in ads where men tend to be located higher than women, this arrangemnts is supported by the understanding in our society that courtesy obliges men to favor women with first claim on whatever is available by way of a seat.
Alpha/Beta:
- the brain has two distinct sides, the left brain and the right brain – each responsible for different things
- the Right side: spatial and is not critical (ALPHA)
o Alpha brain waves escape reality
o Brain is idle/Rest mode
o Not actively processed on incoming messages or motion/Were just absorbing the information
o Add images and visuals, viewed as an escape from reality
o Psychologist Thomas Mulholland found that after just 30 seconds of watching TV the brain starts to produce Alpha waves, which indicates slow rate of activity
o His research applies that watching TV is neurologically analogues to staring at a blank wall
o Associated with unfocused overly receptive state of consiousness
- the Left side: reading (BETA)
o Active awareness, alert, tuned, makes you respond quickly
o Neurons fire up in great numbers and high performances
o We experience TV news differently from the newspaper
o We are actively reading and criticiz
o Media makes the difference and medium is the message
o Actually changes interpersonal dynamics
o Message is not the new stories but the creation of crime, weather changes our perception just like Picaso on canvas (Violent World or Fear)
Virtual Signifieds:
- With advances in satellite communications, TV has now allowed viewers to see themselves as participants in wars and conflicts in other parts of the war as they happened
The three psychological effects are:- 1) Mythologizing Effect: effect that makes people believe in mythic figures that are seen as “larger” than life.
o Actors are perceived to have this holy quality by virtue of the fact that they are seen as suspended inside the mythical electronic space created by television.
o The mythologizing effects leads to people showing great enthusiasm and excitement when meeting TV actors
- 2) History Fabrication Effect: ideology that TV fabricates history by inducing the minds of society
o
- Participants see themselves in wars and conflicts which make them think they are active viewers.
- They are in fact passive viewers.
- TV creates the illusion that there is connectivity among what would otherwise be perceived as fragmented random events. In correlating random events together, TV becomes a social text functioning as a kind of meta-text through which people gain a large portion of information, intellectual simulation and distraction.
- TV is Ubiquitous- everywhere
- Baudrillard says unlike reading books which requires a critical reflection on the signified being conveyed, TV has led to a generalized passiveness and unreflectiveness in how people receive and understand messages.
- Intellectual lethargy ( exhaustion)
- Nixon against Kennedy- people listening on the radio thought Nixon had won the debate but television viewers picked Kennedy. This according to baudrillard showed the power of the visual image over any other type of signifier in media events.
- The three effects are at a lesser degree on other types of Medias since TV reaches more people.
- Actors are perceived as mythic figures who are seen as suspended in real time and space in a mythic world on their own. Actors are perceived to have this holy quality by virtue of the fact that they are seen as suspended inside the mythical electronic space created by television. The mythologizing effects leads to people showing great enthusiasm and excitement when meeting TV actors.
- TV has become the maker of history and its documenter at the same time. For e.g. a riot that gets airtime becomes an important event, one that does not is ignored. People make up their minds about the guilt or innocence of others by watching news and interview programmes. What seems to be a random event with no apparent meaning to us becomes a historical reality. An e.g. would be Diana’s death which was broadcasted all over the world. Even though some people didn’t know her they would still show emotions of sadness when viewing it. An e.g. the Vietnam War as portrayed by the American media gave the public a sense of military and social victory. This shows how media is sanitized that is the perspective is chosen for us. Anderson says media take the raw material of experience and fashion it into stories, they retell the stories to us and we call them reality’
- The cognitive compression effect holds for theory that since television is sanitized for us, the amount of thinking required to reflect on a news program for example is very less. As Danesi states the various stories have been edited and stylized beforehand for effortless mass consumption. Since viewers have less time to reflect on it, this leads to a passive and cognitively effortless way of reading the TV text. The remote control has intensified the cognitive compression effect as the viewer is able to switch channels without reflection when he is bored with the program being aired.
2) Fiske defines television as a bearer/ provoker of meanings and pleasures, and of culture as the generation and circulation of this variety of meanings and pleasures within society
- TV as a cultural agent, mainly a provoker and circulator of meanings.
- it can be seen as a social text that is an overarching representamen that guides and informs the wider society on issues of current concern
- TV carries and recycles trends and myths which are already pre-existent to society and are often “naturalized” in society.
- Fiske uses a 3 level model to analyze television and the meanings in which programs attach to them.
- Level one: Technical Code - Reality, which analyzes appearance, dress codes, make up, speech etc.
- Level two: Social Code - Representation, which analyzes camera angles, lighting, editing, music and sounds used in programs to signify underlying codes.
- Ex. Close ups for close personal relationships – makes viewer feel connected
- Level three: Ideology- which organizes all of the above into coherence and social acceptability
o Such as patriarchy, individualism, race, materialism etc.
- For example the show Friends
o Characters may seem as separate individuals but by analyzing each of them carefully one can understand that they hold distinct codes of ideology that are attached to each character. Ex. Joey- jock, Phebe- dumb blonde
- TV shows carry underlying social codes in which viewers are passive when analyzing
- These codes are recycled so frequently that viewers accept these codes as the social norms, which is why these corporate standards to what is seen as “norm” have been so easily “naturalized” in society
In the late 1980s when viewing movies at home became an option with video cassettes and with the advent of cable, the debate arose that perhaps the movie cinema experience was dead. This proved to be false. Explain why and explain why movies are so powerful with specific reference to Metz.
3) The late 1980 saw a revolution in the way people perceived movies, with major releases being made available for home video
This development seemed to threaten the long term survival of movie theatres and created a climate of uneasiness in movie studios throughout the world, when TV began to challenge the hegemony of motion pictures.
As a result, film companies started increasingly favoring large spectacle movies with special effects which could not be viewed at home.
Going to cinema is still perceived as communal event, something that is to be shared with others. Being at a movie theatre is a social act – being on a date, social experience different atmosphere
• Polysemy
• Composite signifier- Dialogue, camera shot, dark room, large screen made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers.
• Active role of the viewer in creating meaning
• We interpret the codes
• Yet, we’re subject to the ideology and we’re just consumers
So despite the challenge from video cassettes and DVD, the traditional movie viewing is popular as ever.
It is more accurate to say that the cinematic text expands the categories of language by blending dialogues, music, scenery, and action in a cohesive way. For this reason, it can be characterized as a composite sign made up of verbal and non verbal signifiers. This is why according to Metz (1974), they can be viewed as having the same structural features of language. Its composite nature is what makes cinematic representation powerful.
4)
- Constant exposure to virtual realities in cyberspace are leading to a gradual entrenchment of a bizarre modern form of Cartesian dualism in which the body and the mind are viewed as separate entities.
- Constant exposure leads to something really bizarre. computers allow users to move and react in a computer simulated environment, manipulating virtual objects in place of real objects.
- Constant engagement in such environments is conditioning people more and more to perceive the body as separate from the mind.
- Danesi argues that the body and the mind are separate entities but they work together as one. Virtual devices are contributing to this process of cartesian dualism, that transmits the sights, sounds, and sensations of the simulated world to the user.
- In effect, the human subject with a world totally made- up, a kind of representational space where the user is interacting with representation itself.
- Virtual reality has become more widespread and it further expands disembodiment
- Danesi states that the convergence of media and the constant exposure to cyberspace mediation will eventually reshape the world’s signifying orders by turning upside down traditional ideas of human interaction, communication, representation, physical place, textuality and even reality.
EX. Video game addiction: call of duty
EX. Cyberjunkies: people addicted to being online
· Picasso’s analytic cubism took the art and broke it apart with different angular positions, rearranged the elements, resemble and put together.
· Mc luhan argues that cubism is the most radical attempt to stamp out ambiguity andto enforce one reading of the picture- that of a man-made construction.
· For cubism substitutes all facet of an object simultaneously for the point of view or facet of perspective illusion. Cubism sets up an interplay of plans and contradictions or dramatic conflict of patterns, lights, textures, that ‘drives home the message’ by involvement.
· Cubism-multiple perspectives by giving the inside and outside, the top-bottom, back-front and the rest, by forcing you to be aware of the total awareness. Medium is the message.
· Cubism is not the image or art produced but goes further beyond this. The message, it seemed, was the content as people used to ask what a painting was about. But they never thought to ask about what a melody or a house was about.
· Changes interpersonal dynamics, perceptions, art and power of viewing. Medium is the message. Actual medium is changing our mind
· In changing our perception it also goes a step beyond and makes us look above and beyond the obvious to see the non-obvious changes.
· Medium becomes the heart of the message beyond the distraction factory- we are always looking for entertainment relentlessly by endless amount of people
· Acura creates a culturally ambiguous in the sense that it embeds both Japanese and Italian. It is imitative of both the structure of some Japanese words such as tempura and of most Italian words which end typically in a vowel. This generates a system of connotations that are based on two sets of perceptions.- Japanese technology and Italian as a language of love poetry and song.MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE.
· White supremacy to protect racial purity.
• Fiske argues that certain codes work more explicitly than others.
• Their ideological work is to naturalize the correlation of low class non-Americans with the less attractive, less moral and therefore more villainous.
• No other social institution engaged in the construction and distribution of public discourse has the pervasiveness and volume of consumption as the mass media
• 1915 “blockbuster
• It has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the Ku Klux Klan
• Director, D.W. Griffith said the film was about war and reconstruction and not race.
• Opening scene sets film up around issues of racism
• Signifiers in the film use several different elements to convey meanings about race that are clearly to the accuser’s benefit and at the victim’s expense, that is, that African Americans themselves are to blame not only for slavery, but for the problem that slavery caused white people and this is something that is shown continuously in the film.
• Groffith invented the close-up, with the camera showing the actor’s emotions.
• The films racist ideology with white characters- colonial type’s civilized and black characters as uncivilised, bewildered and passive.
• All this would not have happened if they would not have shown that they are inferior to be put into slavery. And hence has been naturalized destructive chaos by former slaves.